MITI’S ARREST ORDER SLAMMED
THE order to arrest and prosecute a state witness has been widely condemned as misguided coming from learned Choma Magistrate, Exnorbit Zulu, who by implication pronounced himself as the accuser instead of the adjudicator, says Zambia National Students Union president Misheck Kakonde.
Mr Kakonde said it was evident the court misdirected itself when it made pronouncements that state witness, Dr Simon Miti must be arrested and prosecuted as an accomplice in a criminal matter involving former Ministry of Health permanent secretary Henry Kapoko and four others.
The case has been a matter of public interest for close to eight years.
Mr Kakonde said the order puts the Magistrate in the position of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) when he should be the adjudicator.
He said courts required support to fairly adjudicate cases of corruption.
The students’ body was con- cerned with the path taken by the Choma Magistrate in the Ministry of Health matter.
“While our courts require our support in the quest to fairly adjudicate cases of corruption, ZANASU subscribes to the legal principle that judges and judicial officers ³must not descend into the arena” by taking sides in matters of litigation or engage into the messier parts of the courtroom debate,” he said.
He said in ordering the arrest and trial of a state witness, the magistrate took upon himself the position of an accuser or alleger in a criminal matter, which should be done by the State through the office of the 'PP.
He said courts should not be turned into investigative agencies or assume the role reserved for the DPP in deciding who must be investigated or taken to court to answer charges.
Mr Kakonde argued that no matter the gravity of the matters involved, the courts should not have an opinion on the investigations. “It is clear that Dr. Miti and any other person may not receive fair trial before the court when the court itself is the one deciding who must be brought before it to answer criminal charges.
“Those who are tasked to take persons before the court must be allowed to independently do their job and the courts that are tasked to dispense justice must be encouraged to do so both for the accuser and the accused, without taking sides,” he said.
And the Zambia Open University Student Union (ZAOUSU) have described pronouncement by the Choma magistrate Zulu in calling for the prosecution of a state witness as an accomplice, as being against established rules of practice on persons viewed as accomplices but turned into State Witnesses.
ZAOUSU information and publicity secretary Ackim Banda said even if the learned magistrate thought that Dr. Miti who was a State Witness could be an accomplice, the law regarded accomplices as competent witnesses who gave evidence relevant to the issue before the court.
“The subject of accomplice evidence and, especially that of a person who turns State witness on an undertaking by the State to grant him immunity from prosecution is explicitly stated by the learned legal scholars that where it is proposed to call an accomplice for the Crown, it is the practice to omit him from the indictment.